“Rachelle Vazquez: Where Pigeons Dare”
You might not recognize the name, but Cher Ami is a genuine hero. In 1918, during World War I, Cher Ami, a pigeon, flew 25 miles in 25 minutes and delivered a message to a unit which was then able to rescue 194 American soldiers. Not only did Cher Ami…
Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas! The Musical
The classic story of redemption, Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas! The Musical, is coming to the Hobby Center just in time for Thanksgiving. “This is a book, a story that everyone knows,” says Bob Lauder, who plays Old Max the Dog in the Theatre Under the Stars production…
2nd Annual Houston Comedy Film Festival
It’s been a couple of weeks since the celebrity-studded hoopla that’s the Cinema Arts Film Festival. More than a few film fanatics are going through withdrawal. But not to worry, the next dose of screen time overindulgence is right around the corner when the 2nd Annual Houston Comedy Film Festival…
The Nutcracker
Houston Ballet’s annual production of The Nutcracker is more than a way to celebrate the holidays, it’s often a way to meet the newest and brightest stars of the company. That’s true for Chinese star Jun Shuang Huang, the company’s newest principal dancer. This is the first time that Huang…
A Christmas Unwrapped
The A.D. Players troupe is offering Houston a big gift in the form of a theatrical package of comedies. We mean that literally. “A Christmas Unwrapped is going to be a different surprise every night. It’s a collection of four one-act plays, but each night we’re only doing three of…
Early Warning: No Light Rail This Weekend
If you’re planning to be all urban and hip and modern by rocking the light rail system this weekend, forget about it. You’re back on the bus. Metro is closing the system starting at 8 p.m. Friday, and it won’t be back up until midnight Sunday. The Texas Children’s Hospital…
Top 5 Kitchen Gadgets We Can’t Live Without
As I was making Thanksgiving dinner this year, I found myself spending a lot of time finding, assembling and, later, cleaning gadgets. It started me thinking about which ones were really worth the effort, and which were not. Today we look at the five kitchen gadgets that I think are…
Metro Tries Yet Another Way Of Providing Airport Service
Metro officials discussed today the details of a sizable overhaul of the agency’s bus service for next year, and, surprisingly, the move has little to do with saving money. In fact the changes, as currently proposed, will cost Metro about $21,000 more, and if the details are tweaked in the…
Po Lightnin’: Lightnin’ Hopkins: His Life and Blues
Lightnin’ Hopkins: His Life and Blues By Alan Govenar Chicago Review Press, 368 pp., $28.95. With the dedication of a state historical marker in the Third Ward where he lived and played, Lightnin’ Hopkins’ name and music has gotten a bit of a boost lately. Long overdue, many would say,…
“Snakebit” by an Architect: A Houston Filmmaker’s Tribute
If the looks of things at the MFAH Tuesday night were any indication, late architect Samuel Mockbee’s prodigious facial hair is contagious–at least judging by the production team for the documentary Citizen Architect: Samuel Mockbee and the Spirit of the Rural Studio, which screened at the MFAH in conjunction with…
Qian Feng: Poisoning Dogs Alleged Hobby Of Jackson Hill Man
The Heights / Timbergrove cat mutilations we covered last summer remain unsolved, but Houston police believe they have busted the culprit in a string of dog poisonings in the Jackson Hill area. And we have an alert, tech-savvy citizen to thank for the bust… Qian Feng was arrested yesterday after…
Stirred & Shaken: Danton’s Galveston Island Tea
When you eat a fresh raw oyster, it’s still alive. A month after my grandfather ate his last serving of raw oysters, he was not. Bacteria caused the fatal infection, but a weakened immune system was really to blame. Despite reminders of the health risks, he wouldn’t be denied oysters,…
James Tyler Markle, Internet Prankster, Gets Jail Time
Last year we told you about The Smoking Gun’s expose of a group of Internet “pranksters” that included a couple of Texas residents. Some of what they did was fun, but some bordered on harassment and members of the group, called Pranknet, would engage in homophobic and racist diatribes. One…
What Is Classic Rock Today?
What is classic rock in 2010? 15 years ago, it was was the Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, The Who, anything Eric Clapton touched and every band your dad played in his car while he was making out with the girls he met before your mom. That’s how we know classic…
Vid Picks of the Week: YouTube Meets Houston Local TV
Mediagumption (media + consumption) through YouTube (instead of cable) means one thing: no television ads. After spending some time with the family for the holidays, one gets the case of nostalgia for the non-viral. A few hours of local television made us remember the good old days, when kids didn’t…
Magnolia High School Gets Its Own Driving Range! — Five Suggestions
“For the longest time, we just had a few individuals in our golf program. Our previous coach did a nice job of building up the program, but now we are trying to take it to the next level.” — Magnolia High School golf coach Jim Bob Jackson You hear about…
Chef Chat, Part 1: Pat Greer’s Raw Vegan Kitchen
Houston chef Patricia Greer radiates a matronly warmth and has a soft, southern twang. It must come naturally, as she’s a mother and grandmother; but not only that, a chef, radio host, teacher, seamstress, and founder of her own Raw Vegan Kitchen and the Central City Co-op — a multitasker,…
Biggest PCP Bust In DEA History Is Houston Proud
Houston is all about being the biggest and best, so if anyone should hold the record for biggest PCP bust in the history of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency, it’s us, dammit. And now we do. Eight Houstonians have been arrested and 57 freaking gallons of PCP confiscated, Houston’s U.S…
Top 10 Hottest Jewish Musicians
The Festival of Lights is upon us, as the eight-day Jewish holiday of Hanukkah officially kicks off at sundown tonight. Some of music’s leading bigwigs will likely be sparking up the menorah, among them Lou Reed, Paul Simon, Billy Joel, Leonard Cohen, Diamond David Lee Roth, Perry Farrell and Bob…
Wine of the Week: Tempra Tantrum 2009 Tempranillo /Shiraz Blend
Another sample courtesy of UnderdogWineMerchant.com, this Spanish wine with a nicely designed, trendy label seems to be part of what the company calls a “Nuevo-Vino” approach to winemaking. I did a little poking around on the winery’s website and decided that this wine’s being marketed to what I assume is…
Cover Story: K2 Ban Comes As Our Story Goes To Press, And We Are Kinda Happy
I have to say, I kind of wondered when the Drug Enforcement Agency was going to crack down on K-2 and other THC-simulating substances. What’s more, although I am pretty Libertarian when it comes to drugs, I was relieved. It was easy to predict the DEA ban for the simple…
SXSW 2011 Still Untainted By Houston Artists
Rocks Off just got the latest list of names for next year’s SXSW conference and festival in Austin, and just like the last time, the conference remains unsullied by any performers from Houston’s filthy, rotten, disgusting, in-need-of-quarantine music scene. Just kidding. Apparently, Houston’s music scene is already quarantined. We assume…
Do Your Holiday Shopping at an Art Museum: 10 Great Gifts Under $50
Screw the mall. Hit the museum. Museum memberships and the unique, eclectic items for sale in the museum store make great gifts for anyone who appreciates art or design. And everyone else as well. ONE-YEAR INDIVIDUAL MEMBERSHIP TO THE HMNS – $45 (SALE!) An individual membership includes unlimited free admission…
A French (Poodle) Street Wins the 3rd Annual Gingerbread Dog House Competition
“I lived in Paris for two years; that’s where I went to culinary school,” explained pastry chef Rebecca Masson last night as she gestured to her entry in the 3rd annual Christmas Tail gingerbread dog house competition at VOICE. The “dog house” that Masson, owner of Fluff Bake Bar, had…
See How It’s Done at The Burger Guys
One of the great things about eating at The Burger Guys, the subject of this week’s cafe review, is enjoying the open kitchen: the sights, sounds and smells cranking out of the stainless steel-dominated landscape heighten the experience of enjoying your burger so much more than if the hustle and…
Trishana Broussard: Sex With Three East Texas Teens Nets Six Years’ Prison
A 37-year-old East Texas woman is going to prison after pleading no contest to engaging in oral sex with three teenaged boys. On Monday, Trishana “Mama Bear” Broussard was sentenced to a six-year sentence on each of the three counts of sexual assault on a child. According to previous published…
Pik-N-Pak: It’s Back!
Send us your stories from the legendary punk ice house – if you remember… Next weekend, Pik N Pak rides again. For those of you, like us, who are too young to have actually gone there, Pic-N-Pak was a Montrose ice house that used to be across Waugh from Rudyard’s…
It’s The Sugar Land Skeeters, Like It Or Not
Sugar Land’s minor league baseball team has a name, and it’s one of the three finalists that no one seemed that enthused about. No, it’s not the Lizard Kings. It’s the Skeeters. Apparently already trademarked and unavailable were the Sugar Land DeLays, the Sugar Land DraculaCunts, the Sugar Land Traffic…
Top 5: Signs You May Be a Food Snob
There are food snobs all around us. Heck, you might be one of them. Look for these signs: 5. The Sandra Lee Effect You think Sandra Lee is a hack just because she’s Sandra Lee. And you think this without ever really having watched her show. Don’t get me wrong,…
(UPDATE) Local “Fringe Festival” Dispute Apparently Settled
Update (Wednesday, December 1, 11:20 a.m.) Both FrenetiCore and BooTown have released official statements regarding the agreement. Read both after the jump. The local performing groups BooTown and FrenetiCore have apparently reached a settlement in their dispute this year over which entity owns the name “Houston Fringe Festival.” Both BooTown…
Remembering Julia Briggs: Teen’s Project To Help Children Of Homicide Victims Lives On
This almost sounds like a movie: Hair Balls has learned that within the Houston Police Department’s homicide division, there’s a detective Brian Harris who unwinds from the work of his day by coaching a girls lacrosse team. On this team (the Iron Maidens) a couple of years ago was a…
The Dead Revolt: Howling, Lizard-Free Indie Rock
Rocks Off loves four things: The Dead: Zombies rock tits, there are no two ways about it. Revolts: As long as they are not aimed at the Rocks Off contingent, a revolt is just about the most interesting that can happen on any given day. People who collect ceramic cows…
The Five Most Plentiful Leftovers Rotting In Your Fridge Right Now
Now, calm down. The Houston Press and Eating Our Words are by no means claiming to have any kind of psychic insight into the contents of your refrigerator, and if we did, we’d tell you to go ahead and throw away that throbbing gray mass that used to be a…
Lee Harvey Oswald’s Coffin For Sale: Christmas Shopping DONE!
Forget trying to fight the crowds at Ikea or Toys R Us. Lee Harvey Oswald’s coffin is for sale!! No, don’t be so ghoulish — you don’t get the one he’s buried in now. This coffin is the utterly unghoulish one he was buried in from 1963 to 1981, when…
Electronic Frontier Foundation, Others Seek To Protect Texas Masturbators
Karl Hungus wouldn’t want German-porn viewers’ names revealedThe anonymous masturbators being sued in a Dallas federal court for allegedly illegally downloading porn won’t have to reveal their identities if the consumer advocacy groups representing them have their way: the Electric Frontier Foundation and Public Citizen have filed briefs seeking to block…
Glee: “Buddha, Allah, Satan…help me!”
I’m about done with Kurt, whose constant state of dissatisfaction has been the show’s central theme for going on a month now: “Oh, I’m afraid for my life” has become, “Oh, I don’t like the way the way they do things at Dalton Academy.” How quickly we forget when our…
Sampler Plate: This Week in Food Blogs
Each week, we put together a sampler plate of the most interesting links from both local and national food blogs. Know a blog we should be paying particular attention to? Leave the address in the comments section below. New York Times: Despite some peoples’ best efforts to the contrary, the…
Bluefinger: Meeting Your Man
As an actor, it’s a rare thing to play a living person, and even rarer to actually meet the subject of your own portrayal. At tonight’s performance of Bluefinger: The Fall and Rise of Herman Brood, I’ll have the crazy experience of meeting Koos van Dijk (Dutch rocker Brood’s longtime…
Last Night: Slim Thug At House Of Blues
“We don’t give women money. We give them babies.” Slim Thug & Friends House of Blues November 30, 2010 Slim Thug wasn’t the biggest name on the bill Tuesday night. While an accomplished veteran in his own right, Thugga hasn’t attained Z-Ro’s “local legend” status or ESG’s “freestyle king” insignia…
Dennis DeAcetis: Brazoria County Man Loses Houses In Divorce, Sues Everybody Again And Again
When Marianne Whitley and Dennis DeAcetis got divorced in 2003, Whitley got the house. Or at least she thought she did, with good reason. After all, it was so ruled by the judge in their divorce case, and DeAcetis had not disputed the property settlement. But according to an opinion…
Becca Cason Thrash: Star Of CultureMap, Which Doesn’t Mention She’s Married To An Owner Of It
In many ways, a recent post was a typical CultureMap item: headlined “Becca Cason Thrash, Scott McClelland, Gina Gaston & more share their living lean strategies,” it was a hard(ly)-hitting look at the holiday diet tips of Houston’s wealthy social types. It concluded with this: Just not fair! We turned…
Altared Amber: Saint Arnold’s Second “Moveable Yeast” Brew Hits Taps Today
It tastes like someone decorated Amber Ale for Christmas, the strong scent of cloves mixing with that signature caramel sweetness: This is Altared Amber, the second in local brewery Saint Arnold’s “Moveable Yeast” series, in which the brewery’s standard beers are pitched with a different strain of yeast, and it’s…
Will Silence Be This Year’s UK Christmas No. 1?
In the United Kingdom, singles that are No. 1 on the UK Singles Chart the week before Christmas are for some reason called Christmas No. 1s – we can’t imagine why. It’s something of an honor to our friends across the pond. The Beatles are the only band to have…
Tyjanae Moore: Houston Still Struggling With Transgender/Bathroom Issues
Two weeks after a transgendered woman tried to use the restroom in a city building, she and the city seem still to be recovering. A security guard at the downtown municipal library told police it was a man dressed in women’s clothes that he saw entering the women’s restroom. When…
Four Loko’s Reign Lasts Far Shorter Than Weed, LSD Or Coke
The end seems to be nearing for Four Loko, the happytime fun drink fueled by alcohol and caffeine. Governments are lining up to ban it and the feds are taking the first steps to do the same, or at least regulate it out of business. Eventually, of course, governments do…
Juliet Stipeche Wins HISD Board Seat In Squeaker
Someone you haven’t heard of beat someone else you haven’t heard of for the District VIII board seat in the Houston school district tonight. Attorney Juliet Stipeche topped former teacher Judith Cruz by 48 votes out of 2,032 cast, according to unofficial HISD results. She was endorsed by the teachers’…
The Houston Press Needs Photo Interns!! Now!!
If there is anything more thrilling than being a Houston Press photo intern, we’d damn sure like to know what it is. And now you, college student, have a chance to grab this brass ring and take it for it’s worth. (Note: “All it’s worth” does not include money.) You…
Holiday Apps Made Easy: Roasted Garlic, Feta and Walnut Dip with Toasted Flat Bread
‘Tis the season for guests. It pays to be equipped with a handful of easy appetizer recipes that you can whip up quickly and usually have the ingredients for already sitting in the kitchen. This delicious dip fits the bill perfectly. The only thing that takes any time at all…
Weekly Time Waster: Radical Fishing
Fishing is considered one of those relaxing pastimes, not quite a sport (to most of us anyway) but a fine way to spend a day without much to show for it besides a little sunburn and the possible trophy. Then there are those who think fishing is dreadfully boring. And…
Taste Test: Nescafé Clasico vs. Starbucks Via
On a recent trip to a Foodarama, I found eight packets of Starbucks Via instant coffee for $5.69 and an eight-packet box of Nescafé Clasico for $1.09. That’s right, more than a $4 difference. That being said, the instructions on the Starbucks call to add eight ounces of water, while…
Derek Anderson Tirade — He Isn’t A Punk Ass Bitch, But He Sure Is Angry (w/ video)
Who knew it could be so much fun calling someone a punk ass bitch? Certainly not me. But you’ve all climbed aboard the Cortland Bitcheggan pain train and have turned “punk ass bitch” catcalling into an Olympic sport. So I’m going to let that marinate for one more day. Feel…
Rocks Off Needs Spring Interns… So Register Now
It’s getting to be that time for Rocks Off to make a call for interns for the spring 2011 semester. We are willing and eager to show you the ropes of music journalism: Things like fielding emails from publicists shilling awful bands, staying up until all hours of the night…
Child Actors Over the Hill at 14 in A Christmas Carol at the Alley
It’s a part-time, once-a-year job that you age out of on your 14th birthday. The youngest kids, ages 4 and 5, aren’t even reading when they start so they have to be drilled daily. They can’t talk out of turn; they can’t even whisper at the wrong moment. No squirming…
Odd Pair: Pineapple Upside Down Cake & Chardonnay-Viognier
Just shy of December, I have already received my first Christmas gift: a lovely bottle of 2007 “Duet” Chardonnay-Viognier by Louis Latour. It is an elegant-looking bottle that promises to be crisp and refreshing, and it does not disappoint. The Chardonnay gives the beverage a sharpness that is somewhat softened…
Chron’s Rick Casey To Host Political TV Show — In San Antonio
Rick Casey is the Houston Chronicle’s star columnist, the news-side city columnist every good paper tries to have. He came over from San Antonio in 2003, the high-profile hire by then-new editor Jeff Cohen. His initial efforts seemed a little San Antonio-centric to some Houstonians, and some parts of the…
Brunch at Pappasito’s Cantina
I found myself eating brunch at Pappasito’s Cantina (2536 Richmond) on a Sunday. The menu has an entree called the Especialidad Pappasito’s, which is supposed to serve two, but since they are only charging half price on Sundays right now, I decided to get the whole thing for myself…
Roky Moon & BOLT Set Free Show For December 18
At Saturday night’s Roky Moon & BOLT LP release show at the Mink, the PA was blown out, rendering the sets from the Ton Tons and BOLT without vocals or much sound at all aside from the amps. The headliners were disappointed by the turn of events and quickly made…
Red Light Cameras Can Not Be Killed Quietly
Paul Kubosh wants to give voters a voice in the ongoing battle over red light cameras in Houston. Kubosh, who started Citizens Against Red Light Cameras, filed today a “motion to intervene” in a federal lawsuit that was filed against the city by American Traffic Solutions, the company contracted to…
Top 10 Trae & Z-Ro Collaborations
Trae and Z-Ro: The Hakeem Olajuwon/Clyde Drexler tandem of Houston hip-hop, if The Dream spoke with a deep voice and Drexler’s face was frozen in a perpetual snarl. Arguably the best one-two punch Houston has ever witnessed, over the years these rapping cousins have connected on several slam-dunk throwdowns. They’ve…
What a Crock: Andy’s Spicy Green Chili Pork
I’m always on the lookout for sure-fire crock pot recipes that are guaranteed good. The run down This pulled pork recipe goes against some of the crock pot standards, but given the outstanding taste, I can look past them. For one, it’s not an entire meal in the pot. It’s…
Nakia Brown: After She Initiates Cheaters-style Fracas, Sues State For Crime Victim Compensation
If you’ve ever seen the shit-show that is Cheaters, that Dallas-bred abomination of televised romantic desolation, you know the drill. Woman comes back to bleak exurban apartment complex and sees car of suspected romantic rival. Heart in throat and fists in tightly-clenched balls, woman goes to boyfriend’s door and demands…
New on DVD: Twilight: Eclipse, Cairo Time, Going the Distance, Knight and Day, The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, Valhalla Rising, Vampires Suck
(Capsule reviews by Dan Kois, Karina Longworth, Nick Pinkerton and Vadim Rizov.) The Twilight Saga: Eclipse Why is Eclipse, the third film in the Twilight series, so fantastically successful? Eclipse delivers the greatest pleasure when it deals out pain to its stars. R-Pattz can’t act, exactly, but he can glower…
Texas Watchdog Offices Broken Into: Begin The Paranoia?
Texas Watchdog, the website that does a lot of digging into the spending of governments and politicians, was burglarized over the weekend. The offices in downtown Houston were ransacked and laptops taken, among other things. Was it the work of a nervous or vengeful politico running a black ops? Probably…
Celebrity Deaths: Three’s Company?
This past Sunday night the world lost comedy legend Leslie Nielsen, and just yesterday The Empire Strikes Back director Irvin Kershner joined Alec Guinness and Peter Cushing in the big Star Wars convention in the sky. That makes two big celebrities that have died in two days, and we all…
Ingredient of the Week: Dumpling Squash
What is it? When I first spotted one, I thought it was just another gourd. Sitting there among the decorative, hollow beauties in the supermarket the week of Thanksgiving, these small, pumpkin-esque squashes looked no more edible than their cousins. But aside from making a homey centerpiece for Thanksgiving dinner,…
KPRC Alum Chris Wragge New Anchor For CBS’ Morning Show
Chris Wragge, who was a sports anchor at KPRC for six years — and is the only person to ask Hair Balls how he’d feel if his wife did a nude scene in the movies — is moving on up. He is replacing Harry Smith as co-anchor on CBS’ Early…
Willie Nelson’s Pot Bust: A Milestone In Marijuana Policy?
You gotta love a sumbitch like Willie Nelson who, unlike Bill “I-Never-Inhaled” Clinton, has always ‘fessed up to using copious quantities of herb. Two days ago, in response to his pot bust last Friday at a Border Patrol checkpoint near Sierra Blanca (that’s a Spanish geographical term for the middle…
Hoagies & More: No Hoagies Here
Hoagies & More (6429 Bissonnet, 713-541-4484) is tucked away in a strip mall in Gulfton right next door to Sheba Cafe, the subject of a recent cafe review. Yet despite its name, there are no hoagies served at Hoagies & More. You can, however, choose from a wide selection of…
Despite Its Title, Houston Ballet’s Nutcracker Is a Holiday Stress Reliever
The Setup: It just wouldn’t be the holiday season without Houston Ballet’s The Nutcracker, now would it? Once again the company has begun its mega-run of this Christmas classic created by HB Artistic Director Emeritus Ben Stevenson in 1987. The Execution: Both the charming, family-style choreography and Desmond Heeley’s sets…
Upcoming: Bun B, Grace Potter, Warpaint, Yanni, Etc.
“The 14th Annual Townes Van Zandt Wake”: Sat., Jan. 1. Old Quarter Acoustic Cafe. Anarchitex, Linus Pauling Quartet, Omotai: Sat., Dec. 18. Rudyard’s. Blind Guardian, Seven Kingdoms, Holy Grail.: Wed., Dec. 15. Warehouse Live. “Canned Acoustica” With Robert Ellis, Tyagaraja, Black Queen Speaks, Chase Hamblin, Winter Wallace, Sara Van Buskirk,…
Health Dept. Roundup
Be grateful city health inspectors didn’t visit your kitchen over Thanksgiving week, because by the looks of it, they would have dinged you, too. At Thai Spice (5117 Kelvin), a November 22 inspection found 10 violations, including that food was being stored at an unsafe temperature, that some equipment was…
Floyd Bernard Payne: Stealing An ATM Is Easier When The Storeowner Doesn’t Turn On The Security Camera
There is breaking and entering, and then, as Humble police say happened last week, there is backing your truck through the wall of a convenience store after hours, attaching chains to the ATM and — whee! — racing off into the glory of the night. How anyone expected to get…
State Rep. Leo “Birther Bill” Berman: CNN With Another Texas Beatdown
Texas State Representative, Leo Berman, you have joined the hallowed ranks of Congressman Louie Gohmert and your colleague Debbie Riddle: You have been utterly humiliated on CNN. Berman, as we reported earlier, has introduced a “birther” bill in the Lege, demanding that no candidate can get a Texan’s vote for…
Young Sensation Has All The Answers
The hip-hop world is a less than sensible place – lots of times, you’re even required to clarify when bad means bad and when bad means good – so once a week we’re going to get with a rapper and ask them to explain things. Have something you always wanted…
Pay Andre Johnson’s Fine: Dept. Of Really Bad Ideas, Call For You On Line One
You knew this was coming — someone is mounting a campaign to pay the $25,000 fine Texan Andre Johnson got for aggressively invading the personal space of Titan Cortland Finnegan Sunday. The website 25for80.com has set up the account, with the above very earnest video introduction. “I thought it would…
The 10 Most Memorable Food Infomericals
There is something mysteriously hypnotic about late-night (or, worse, mid-day) infomercials. I don’t know if it’s the manically insane way most of the infomercial presenters behave, or the momentary belief that maybe — just maybe! — these pioneers may have really found something that makes chopping onions a little less…
Unidentified Male, 34, Bayou Body Count No. 281
A Thanksgiving get-together turned deadly on the west side and a Harris County grand jury will decide if the shooter acted in self-defense. The incident happened about 2 a.m. Thanksgiving morning in the 12800 block of Westleigh. The identity of the deceased, 34, is being withheld pending verification. HPD says…
Last Night: Blonde Redhead At Warehouse Live
Blonde Redhead Warehouse Live November 29, 2010 The trio of lead vocalist Kazu Makino and twin brothers Amedeo and Simone Pace sonically sailed their way into Houston last night to open up their vast palette of musical and visual colors for a packed-out crowd. Many in attendance had anticipated this…
Mark Ballas Says Burn the Floor Is “Bad Ass”
Mark Ballas, the Dancing With the Stars professional dancer who just finished up his seventh season by coming in third with partner Bristol Palin is joining up with the national tour of Burn the Floor and will be in Houston December 14-19. “People should come to see Burn the Floor…
Aeros At The Quarter Mark Of The Season: Shaking Off A Bad Start?
The Houston Aeros’ Thanksgiving weekend was emblematic of their 2010 season so far — too many losses, but at the end hope for the future.They lost to the Texas Stars in Austin 5-3 on Wednesday night, lost to the San Antonio Rampage 5-3, in Houston on Friday night, but came…
Who Mourns For Dobby? Not Me.
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 1 looks likely to surpass the Star Wars series as the most lucrative film franchise of all time. It topped the box office again, earning over $600 million in worldwide grosses. Part 1 is on pace to surpass the $933 million gross of…
Good Riddance, Dobby
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 1 was number one at the box office for the third straight week. With over $600 million in worldwide grosses, the first half of the final installment of the film franchise looks like it will probably surpass the $933 million gross of its…
What Does Batman Have To Do With “Jingle Bells”?
Jingle Bells! Batman smells Robin laid an egg. Batmobile lost a wheel And the Joker got away. Everyone has heard this parody of “Jingle Bells.” In fact, for a couple of years Rocks off had recited this version so many times that when called upon to sing the original version…
Where Are We Drinking?
The photographer may not have liked the resulting sun flare on this photo, but we love it…especially because it makes guessing this week’s Where Are We Drinking location just a wee bit more difficult. Think you know where we’re getting a glass of Grenache this week? Leave your best guess…
Andre Johnson Vs. Cortland Finnegan: Five Reasons NFL Fights Stink (w/Video)
This weekend’s brawl between Andre Johnson and the Tennessee Titans’ Cortland Finnegan was an NFL rarity: A fight that actually resembled a fight. Punches thrown to actual exposed faces, chins, noses and eyes. And it went on for a little bit. Nothing touches the NHL in this regard, of course,…
Google Street View Lawsuit: Texas Gets In On The Action
An East Texas attorney has filed a class action lawsuit against Google, claiming the company illegally stole data from Wi-Fi networks while collecting data for Google Maps Street View. Google got in trouble earlier this year for its Street View collection methods — basically driving around cars equipped with special…
Willie Nelson’s “Green Friday” Leads To Teapot Party
If you are a cop in Texas – OK, a cop anywhere in the world – when you pull over a tour bus and out pops a gnomish man with grayish-red hair and you smell pot smoke, you smile and nod, get an autograph and go on your way. It’s…
Friday Night: Nitzer Ebb At Numbers
Nitzer Ebb Numbers November 29, 2010 It was an odd feeling, watching Nitzer Ebb at Numbers Friday night. It was an odd feeling, because of the déjà vu. Nitzer Ebb was the first band Aftermath ever saw live – ever – opening Depeche Mode’s Violator tour at the Woodlands in…
Sarah Palin Follows In W’s Book-Signing Footsteps
She didn’t quite draw the crowd (or the mass of security) that former President George W. Bush pulled for his booksigning a few weeks ago, but former Alaska Governor and Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin still had more than 400 fans vie for a few fleeting moments with the author,…
Top 10 Brew Blog Beers
This week, Brew Blog — our project to expose you to interesting beers you may want to try — turns a year old. To celebrate this anniversary, we’ve combed through the past year’s posts to recap the most outstanding offerings we found. Though we’ll surely get some angry comments about…
Slideshow: AutoRama 2010
Proud owners of spectacular custom cars definitely consider their rides to be works of art. They turned out in droves for AutoRama, a Houston Thanksgiving tradition and one of the longest-running indoor car shows in the country. The event featured special appearances from the Houston Roller Derby girls and reality…
Houston Texans — Cortland Finnegan Is A Punk Ass Bitch
”I want to apologize to the organization, our owner and my teammates. What happened out there today wasn’t me. I just lost my cool. I wish I could take back what happened. I can’t. It’s over and done with now. I’m pretty sure I’ll be disciplined. I’ll have to deal…
Wortham Fountain Car Crash: World’s Biggest Fire Hydrant
It’s a timeworn cinematic cliche — a car chase will end with one car running into a fire hydrant, ending up leaning on its side as water sprays all over it. So why isn’t the water running in this picture? Cut!!…
$19 Lunch at Samba Grille
I know that Eating Our Words isn’t meant to be a weather report, but bear with me here, as we’ve been experiencing some unseasonably shitty weather… By Wednesday, it’s supposed to be sunny and cold once again, with a low of 43 degrees. That’s more like it. And by Friday,…
Sugar Land’s Big-Time Minor League Stadium
We were gone on vacation last week, so we missed the unveiling, on Sugar Land’s municipal website, of the proposed new minor-league stadium. The city is seeking bids on a contractor to build the $30 million facility according to the plans already developed…
Our Annual Hour In Sunny 99.1’s Holiday Hell
The day before Thanksgiving, Sunny 99.1, “Houston’s Official At-Work Station” did its yearly change-over to all holiday music. It’s now a Houston tradition to turn over the dial at 5 p.m. on Thanksgiving Eve to snort your first line of Burl Ives or Brenda Lee of the season, before you…
Feel the Burn: The Thanksgiving Cinnamon Dare
While most of you were gorging and napping this past Thursday, I found myself at work, sitting through the last 12 hours of an 84-hour workweek, on the 30th floor of a downtown office building. I’m not here for a sob story, though. It’s the nature of my job, and…
Unidentified Female, 24, Bayou Body Count No. 280
A woman was shot in the back and killed Friday night on the southeast side, police say. Houston police say they got a shooting call and when they arrived in the 6200 block of West Airport they found an injured 24-year-old woman. She was taken to Ben Taub Hospital and…
Spike Your Holiday Party with Whipped Lightning
“I imagine this is what alcoholics think clouds taste like.” — avclub.com taste test Move over, Four Loko. Meet Whipped Lighting. It’s nitrous oxide-propelled alcohol (a.k.a. Whipahol), and it’s currently sold in 13 states, including Texas. Available in flavors like Spiced Vanilla, Amaretto, White Chocolate Raspberry, and Cinnamon, the product…
Lonesome Onry And Mean Plays “Spin The iPod” (Almost)
Facebook, that great time-waster, is always a source of mindless brain candy. Just a few moments ago, Lonesome, Onry and Mean was tagged in a note titled “15 Random iPod Songs.” The rules were fairly straightforward: Put your unit on “random” and list the first 15 songs that play. This…
Houston Culinary Tours Ramping Up Again
There’s now one more way to get your Robb Walsh fix besides rereading that copy of Sex, Death and Oysters for the fifth time: The Houston Press’s former food critic is teaming up with Catalan executive chef Chris Shepherd once again to lead another Houston Culinary Tour. The World BBQ…
UK’s Daily Telegraph Blogger Gushes Over Jones Hall
Stephen Hough, composer, pianist and culture blogger for London’s The Daily Telegraph, has been in Houston recently covering the Symphony, and he has praised the orchestra, calling it “well-known as one of the great American [ones].” But he has even higher praise for Jones Hall. While waiting on his flight…
Whitney Harper: Song Downloader’s Appeal Slapped Down By U.S. Supreme Court
Faith Hill shall not be deniedFive record labels that sued a 16-year-old San Antonio girl six years ago for illegally downloading a bunch of shitty music the labels vomited upon the listening public can finally exhale: the U.S. Supreme Court has decided not to hear the girl’s appeal. This means that, per a Fifth…
What Do Rappers Read?
Some rappers happen to be thoughtful, intelligent people. Every Monday that isn’t a national holiday, Rocks Off will have some of them here discussing issues relevant to their culture. This Week’s Panel: Bun B, Chingo Bling, The ARE, Kyle Hubbard, Rob G the General, the guys from Simple Success, Yung…
Date Night: Drinks at Rainbow Lodge, Dinner at Haven
A friend’s email prompted us to partake in a spontaneous date night. Why do married couples almost automatically say no when asked to go out? The wife and I are generally no different, but on this day, I was set on changing things. We secured a babysitter, got gussied up,…
County Judge Emmett Separates Shoulder, Will Miss Eagles Game
Blatantly ripping off the Barack Obama basketball injury, Harris County Judge Ed Emmett’s office has announced that he, too, is on the injured-reserve list. Emmett separated his shoulder in an early-morning tennis game today and will likely require surgery, spokesman Joe Stinebaker says. “Judge Emmett fell and landed on his…
The Five Most Annoying Christmas Ads
Anyone who’s watched football (or What Not to Wear, we guess) recently knows that the onslaught has begun: The horror of Christmas commercials. These heinous 30-second bits of torture can abuse viewers in several ways. Here are five of the worst. 5. Jewelry for the Meek, Submissive Weaker Sex Whether…
Saturday Night: Roky Moon & BOLT At The Mink
Roky Moon & BOLT The Backroom at the Mink November 27, 2010 When we were all little, we had a piles of shoes and clothes that we outgrew, or those little tics on the kitchen wall where mom or dad would mark off how big we were getting. The same…
The MSG in Voodoo Gumbo Potato Chips
I was hanging out on my porch when my friend came over with some chips to go with the beer I was drinking. It was one of those relaxed days when I couldn’t seem to get out of the patio chair. I thought the name of the chips was kinda…
Top Five: Leslie Nielsen’s Funniest Moments
Late yesterday, the comedy world got the sad news that veteran comedian Leslie Nielsen had passed away in a Florida hospital due to complications from pneumonia. He was 84. The actor began his career as a serious dramatic actor, in movies like Forbidden Planet, the spy film Night Train To…
Kar Lucky, 26, Bayou Body Count No. 279
It has to be said: Kar Lucky’s luck ran out Tuesday. Houston police say they believe Lucky, 26, was the victim of a drive-by shooting in the 5900 block of Ranchester on the west side Tuesday night. About 11:30 p.m.they say, HPD responded to a call about a drive-by shooting…
Compulsory Calorie Counting
Thanksgiving in New York: After gorging myself at my aunt’s Long Island Thanksgiving feast, my family and I went into the city to troll around the Public Library, admire the window displays at Macy’s, eat a juicy buffalo burger at Ted’s Montana Grill, and go see “Time Standing Still” with…
Saturday Night: The Posies And Brendan Benson At Groundhall
The Posies, Brendan Benson Groundhall November 27, 2010 “Do you guys remember the ’90s?” queried Posies guitarist Jon Auer to Saturday’s Groundhall crowd. A moderate cheer proved the audience not only remembered the decade, but also eagerly supported its recent revival (if only in the form of the era’s “it”…
Indya Ebong, 5 Months Old, Bayou Body Count No. 278
A father killed his baby daughter by hitting her in the stomach when she wouldn’t quit crying, Houston police say. Iniubong Effiong Ebong, 31, admitted to police that he struck his five-month-old daughter Indya about 5:30 p.m. Friday; the baby was taken to the hospital by her parents and later…
Double Cross Lounge: A Place for Vodka
With all the Prohibition Era cocktails swirling around our city lately, the once untouchable vodka has started to get a bad rap. Double Cross Lounge (114 Gray St) is setting out to change all that. A swank little bar housed in the old Tasting Room location, Double Cross Lounge is…
Wife Swap With the Stars (And Other Shows We’d Rather Watch)
If you believe host Vernon Kay, Skating with the Stars is the most dangerous competition on network television, “The performances will be just as explosive, the costumes even tinier, but there is an added element of danger — razor-sharp blades of steel strapped to the feet of six very nervous…
Andre Johnson Vs. Nolan Ryan: Which Beatdown Wins?
Texans fans got a rare chance to cheer this weekend, and not only because the team won (we won’t mention exactly how low on the totem pole the opposition’s starting QB was). There was also an unusual helmet-free fight, between Andre Johnson and the Titans’ Cortland Finnegan. Johnson’s widearmed face-punching…
The Week In TV
Another Thanksgiving is in the books, and I’m sure we all had a good weekend eating disturbing amounts of food and trying not to think about the whole genocide-of-the-Native-Americans thing. It tends to make USA’s Elf marathons kind of a downer. This was the (slow) week in TV Land: •…
Friday Night: Fat Tony And B L A C K I E At The Mink
Fat Tony, B L A C K I E The Backroom at the Mink November 26, 2010 10:48 p.m.: Ah, the age-old Jacket Dilemma: Tonight, it is 40 or so degrees outside. And the only viable (free) parking spot near The Mink is more than a block and a half…
Rice Football: Owls End Season With A Win Streak
The Rice Owls were losing to UAB late in the third quarter on Saturday. The Owls fielded a punt at their own 17. Nineteen plays later, nine-and-half minutes later, 83 yards later, quarterback Taylor McHargue found tight end Vance McDonald in the end zone and with the fourth quarter nearly…
Cougar Football Is All Over Now
The Houston Cougars spoke about the importance of having a good game on Saturday. Not only would a victory over Texas Tech guarantee a bowl game for the Coogs, but it would allow the seniors to go out on a high note.So of course, in a season that has turned…
Where Are We Eating?
Plenty of places are now serving up dishes with a fried egg on top. The Burger Guys will even make it a duck egg for an extra $2. But only one place serves it on top of fried mackerel and sauteed spinach. Can you guess where? Leave your best guess…
Puccini And The Radioactive Death Of Opera
People who know nothing about opera know one of two names. The first is Wagner, whom most of us are familiar with because Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd danced around singing “Kill the Wabbit” to the tune of “Ride of the Valkries.” The other is Giacomo Puccini, who laid down…
Boardwalk Empire: Winding the Bunny
Ep. 11 Preview A screenwriter I used to know once talked about “winding the bunny”: Basically, a storyteller’s job is to wind up the mechanical bunny with enough force that it will walk the rest of the journey under its own power. The best stories always pack enough information and…
Top Ten Quotes from the Movie Elf
We at Hair Balls can spend a lot of time doing really worthless things like quoting movies. We’ve been known to have day- or even week-long e-mail exchanges with friends simply quoting lines from movies like Stripes, which is why we were happy to read about Alamo Drafthouse’s screening of…
Texans 20, Titans 0: Andre Punctuates Big Win With Knockout Blow
For the first time in four weeks, the Texans left someone other than themselves and their fans feeling the effects of a punch. In this case, it happened both figuratively and literally, bringing an incredibly satisfying conclusion to a 20-0 Texans romp over the Titans. The win snapped a four-game…
In Case You Missed It…
Rocks Off knows you have had a busy week. So have we. But, we figured, what with Thanksgiving and Black Friday and traveling to and from your various other holiday ports of call, you may not have had as much time in front a computer as usual. We feel sorry…
NFL & College Football – Weekend’s Best Bets (SEC Guy Podcast Gold)
I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday, and got to spend some quality time with their families. Me, my family is scattered all over the country, so when it came time to find some Thanksgiving dinner after my show yesterday, fortunately I had a family who allowed me into…
This Week in Deliciousness
Welcome back to the weekly roundup here at Eating Our Words, where we’re still trying to gather the courage to look up what a “giblet” is. In case you were abroad for this past week, or else belong to one of those oh-so-joyous-and-fun religions who don’t celebrate holidays, this past…
Infographic: The Black Friday Experience
Today is “Black Friday”, so named because of the hellish throng of shoppers and cars choking the streets, sidewalks, and retail outlets all over the country. Believe it or not, up until a few years ago, “Black Friday” was an urban legend; the shopping crowd was no different than any…
Sick of Turkey? Order a Pizza: Our Top 5 Pizza Places
Not all of us are like the Old Man in A Christmas Story; we aren’t all turkey fiends. Some of us are happy to have it once a year and then forget the bland white meat even exists. So while some are content to spend Black Friday munching on leftover…
Top Five: Black Friday on YouTube
Today, Art Attack wouldn’t want to be anywhere near a Target, Best Buy or WalMart. The breed of individual that would run in that mob is a mysterious one (to put it nicely). We prefer to experience Black Friday from a safe distance–vicariously, in fact. We picked our favorite Black…
The Mama Bear Returns: Palin Book Signing Monday at Borders
Love her or hate her, Sarah Palin will not be ignored. We are living in an era when politicians and experts of all kinds inspire mistrust, and Palin presents herself as the ultimate outsider – just a regular American gal, hunting moose and being a “mama bear” to her cubs…
Upcoming Events
Attention Top Chef fans! If you were rooting for Texas’s own Tiffany Derry this season (even if she lives in Dallas now, you gotta love a girl who came up through IHOP), here’s your chance to meet the woman herself, as well as taste her food. Pesce’s executive chef, Mark…
What’s Wrong With The Houston Music Scene? Anything?
Rocks Off has wanted to ask our esteemed little group of Houston musicians this question from the first time we birthed this still-new blog series. Maybe it only gets asked in the smoking section in front of some venue after a couple of drinks and smokes, but it’s still a…
Pleasantly Plump: One-Third of Overweight Women in Denial
Good news for chubby-chasers in Texas: a new study out of the University of Texas Medical Branch claims that “37 percent of overweight women and 10.5 percent of obese women were of the notion that their weight was normal or too low.”Published in the journal Obstetrics & Gynecology, the study…
Perfect Combinations at McCormick & Schmick’s
Recently, McCormick & Schmick’s latest location in the Town & Country Shopping Center (791 Town & Country Blvd.) hosted a Chef’s Dinner to promote its new concept of “perfect combinations.” Perfect combinations is a different way of eating that allows guests to choose two or three small portions of different…
Sorry, Pitchfork & Rolling Stone, Kanye’s Fantasy Is Not Perfect
Out since Monday, Kanye West’s My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy finally hit stores to what is seeming to us like mass audience acclaim. It’s hitting in the right spots, lyrically and musically, and now, one by one, the critics are weighing in. A week or so ago Rocks Off turned…
UT-Brownsville Using Text Message to Warn Students of Violence
UT-Brownsville is using a new tactic to keep its students safe from violence across the border: text messaging. Students, faculty and staff at the school are being asked to enter their cell phone numbers in a university database, so whenever drug violence explodes near the campus, warnings can be text-blasted…
Openings & Closings: November 2010
It’s been a while since we’ve done a monthly roundup of openings and closings, but we’re getting that train back on track now, and what a month to pick for that re-railment. November was busy, both in terms of openings and closings as well as in terms of chefs coming…
Too Cool for School? Salman Rushdie Courts Harry Potter Fans with New Book
When talking about his new book, Luka and the Fire of Life, Salman Rushdie has been bringing up a line from Paul Simon’s song “St. Judy’s Comet:” “If I can’t sing my boy to sleep, it makes your famous daddy look so dumb.” It’s an odd choice for a marketing…
November 20 to 26: The Week in Photos
Each week, we take a dip into the Houston Press Flickr pool and see what our talented photographers have been up to. From holiday festivities to concerts to sporting events, be sure to add your images to our photo group — if it’s Houston-related, we want to see it. Also,…
AC/DC’s High Voltage Rock ‘N’ Roll, In Pictures
AC/DC: High Voltage Rock ‘n’ Roll – The Ultimate Illustrated History By Phil Sutcliffe Voyageur Press, 224 pp., $35 A genuine coffee table book on the greatest exports to ever come from Down Under is cool enough, but the fact that the cover has a cut-out circle that allows you…
No Boys Allowed at Girls’ Pint Out
“We’re gals into grolsch. Ladies into lagers. Princesses into pilsners. Angels of ale. You get the idea.” – Girls Pint Out homepage. We all seemed to arrive at the same time on Tuesday night. A collective groan emerged from the crowd as the pathway over the railroad tracks that separate…
Raw Materials Issues Blamed for Shortage of Lethal Injection Drugs
Sodium thiopental, the drug that the state of Texas so desperately needs for its executions, is approved by the FDA for use only as an anesthetic. On the market for more than 70 years, it has been largely replaced in American hospitals by other anesthesia, according to Chem.Insider Daily, and…
The Fried Egg Sandwich at Max’s Wine Dive
The Fried Egg Sandwich at Max’s Wine Dive ranks among my top five Houston restaurant sandwiches. Well, I should qualify that statement: my slightly altered version of Max’s FES is one of my favorite sandwiches. The original FES contains bacon, which I sub out for avocado. Not that I have…
Tax The Wolf Shines As Velvet Underground
Who loves the sun? Tax the Wolf does. Dressed for the occasion in ties and turtlenecks, the Houston prog-rockers downshifted into downtown chic to cover most of the Velvet Underground’s 1970 album Loaded at the return of Rocks Off’s Reduxion Wednesday night at Walter’s on Washington. With very special guest…
Turkey Pardon: Yao Ming’s Tender Left Foot
Ever since JFK got benevolent just days before his assassination, presidents have been pardoning the turkeys presented to them at the White House. It’s a noble tradition, and one we take up here at the Houston Press. In putting together our annual Turkey of the Year award, we were all…
Cory Mo’s Star-Studded It’s Been About Time Mixtape
We’ve been writing about Houston rap for nearly three years now, and have yet to hear someone – ANYONE – say a bad thing about Cory Mo. Not once. That’s remarkable. Given the sometimes irritable nature of Houston’s rap scene, that’s like saying he stood in the middle of a…
Redneck Thanksgiving: Turkey Pie
We now present the “leftovers” installment of our Redneck Thanksgiving series, a quartet of posts for those pressed for time, looking to do some ironic cooking or just plain angry at their arteries. For previous posts in this series — mined mainly from my family’s eastern Ohio church cookbook –…
YouTube Reinstates Ally ASL’s Account
Allyson Townsend, better known to her fans as Ally ASL, made headlines earlier this month when YouTube shut down her account after Universal Music Group and Warner Music Group complained that her videos, which featured Ally translating pop songs by Kesha, Owl City and others into American Sign Language, were…
The Week In Art Photos
Each week, we scour the Houston Press Flickr Pool and see what kinds of art shots our talented photographers have added. If you think you’ve got a good eye, drop your pictures in the pool and every Friday we’ll post the most eye-popping shots. (Be sure to enable the HTML…
Houston Cougar Football: Definitely Maybe Ending Tomorrow Night
When Texas Tech and Houston met in September of last year, it was a truly magical moment for the Cougars. The Red Raiders were seen as one of the top teams in the country and head coach Mike Leach was one of those names mentioned whenever a major college job…
Chef Chat, Part 3: Nick Banaszak of Hearsay Gastro Lounge
After talking to Chef Nick Banaszak of Hearsay Gastro Lounge about everything from grasshoppers to controversial hot dogs, we’d worked up quite an appetite. Lucky for us, we were in one of our favorite restaurants. Not only is the food amazing at Hearsay, but so is the space itself. Located…
Biscuits at Branch Water Tavern
On a recent visit to Branch Water Tavern, I enjoyed the chicken fried oysters, seasonal cocktails and perfectly cooked rare cheeseburger. Truly bloody meat can be, ahem, bloody hard to find in Houston restaurants. My favorite part of the meal, however, was a dish I didn’t have to pay for…
Remember Thurogood Wordsmith’s The Appetizer EP?
Houston’s history is dotted with albums that, fairly or not, have been swept aside. We’ll examine them here. Have an album that you think nobody knows about but should? Email sheaserrano@gmail.com. Thurogood Wordsmith The Appetizer EP (Self-released, 2010) The noodle-voiced Thurogood Wordsmith came into sight – for us, anyway -…
10 Pumpkin Dishes to Try in Houston: #1: Pumpkin Dessert Tasting at Mark’s American Cuisine
I adore pumpkin. It’s orange (my favorite color), healthful (fiber! Vitamin A!), and associated with two lovely, food-centric holidays (Halloween and Thanksgiving). Starting around October, I always find myself on the hunt for pumpkin-flavored foods, and this autumn is no exception. So I’ve been counting down 10 Pumpkin Dishes to…
Bartender Chat: Heather Muster of Market Square Bar & Grille
Heather Muster doesn’t just work at Market Square Bar & Grille (311 Travis St); she practically lives there. “I work every day Monday through Saturday,” she tells us. “Luckily we’re closed on Sundays.” Market Square is her first bartending job, and she’s been enjoying it there for about six years…
Five 80’s Movie Scenes That Spurred Our Sexual Awakenings
Many of us at Hair Balls grew up in the 1980’s. It was a formative time for us when we learned about love and life and how to drink from a funnel while standing on our heads, an innocent time. Several of us were having drinks (sitting up this time)…
Where To Drink on Thanksgiving
If you’re anything like us, you’ve just about had your fill of family by now. Head to one of these fine local watering holes tonight to catch up with friends that are in town for the holidays, blow off familial steam that’s been building over the last couple of days…
Brendan Benson: Raconteurs Were More Than “Jack’s Band”
Ed. Note: Brendan Benson spoke with the Houston Press for this week’s “Chatter” Q&A in the print edition. Here’s what didn’t make it onto the page. Rocks Off: Did you consider working with The Raconteurs to be sort of an alternative outlet for you? Yeah, it was definitely an outlet…
ZZ Top-Inspired Ski Gear
The ski mask (or balaclava) is in desperate need of an image overhaul. Thanks to Hollywood–and countless hours of surveillance footage–what was once just a functional item of clothing is now commonly associated with art thieves, terrorists, and kidnappers. And then came the knit beard. Now, even the follically-challenged can…
Thanksgiving 2010: The Post Where We Get All “Thanky”
As we prepare to gorge ourselves today on turkey (Cajun fried is the choice here), stuffing, pumpkin bread, and perhaps something green (maaaaybe, but probably not), I want to first thank all of you who stop in and read the stuff on the blog here, not just my stuff but…
Nitzer Ebb, Part 2: “Faith Healers”
Wednesday, Rocks Off spoke with Nitzer Ebb about their return to Houston, once a city internationally known for its growing electronica scene and rabid EBM fans. Since the band’s reunion earlier this decade, they have consistently dropped in here to find that they are not only not forgotten, but just…
Vintage Thanksgiving Postcards: A Feast for the Eyes
While searching for a photo of a Thanksgiving feast on Flickr, we stumbled across this treasure trove of old-fashioned Thanksgiving postcards from days of yore — Creative Commons licensed and all! — from Flickr user riptheskull. (It’s not the most festive of handles, but there you have it.) We used…
Where’s Houston’s Burlesque Troupe?
While I was writing my review of Burlesque for Art Attack this week, I decided the least I could do for Houstonians who bothered to read about that movie’s woeful lack of authenticity (among other things) would be to point them to where they could find the real thing. It…
Why Doesn’t Houston Have a Burlesque Troupe?
While I was writing my review of Burlesque for Art Attack this week, I decided the least I could do for Houstonians who bothered to read about that movie’s woeful lack of authenticity (among other things) would be to point them to where they could find the real thing. It…
Top Five: Thanksgiving Dinner Interrogation Questions/Answers
It started with a pinching of your cheeks. A vigorous pat on your head. Now, it’s turned into a full scale interrogation. Thanksgiving dinners signify togetherness and appreciation. They may also signify the first time in 365 days that you’ve seen your parents and close relatives. The dreaded Q&A begins…
Food in Film: The 5 Greatest Pie Scenes for Thanksgiving
Last year for Thanksgiving, we treated you to the top 5 overeating scenes from the movies (in honor of all the face-stuffing so many of us are doing today). This Thanksgiving, we’re celebrating another indulgence: pie. Bonus: No footage of Mr. Creosote to ruin your appetite. You’re welcome! 5. “The…
Kenny Chesney’s Real Life Lessons For The Boys Of Fall
Rocks Off found out last week that country singer Kenny Chesney is offering free DVD copies of his high school football documentary The Boys of Fall to any schools or coaches who might be interested. If you want to buy it, it’s only available at Walmart. From the email: In…
Rice Owls Hope To Go Out In A Blaze Of Glory
This is not the season the Rice Owls intended to have. The plan was to have a winning season. The plan was to go a bowl game. The plan was to be competitive. The plan wasn’t to come into the last game of the season with a 3-8 record. The…
Food Fight: Battle Sesame Chicken
I decided to take it to take Battle Sesame Chicken to the streets. Caroline, one of our readers, suggested I check out 168 Beijing, a new stop for me. Would Beijing’s sesame chicken beat out my pick of Lai Lai Dumpling House’s off-menu version? Let the battle begin. Lai Lai…
Chef Chat, Part 2: Nick Banaszak of Hearsay Gastro Lounge
Yesterday, we chatted with Chef Nick Banasczak of Hearsay Gastro Lounge about his culinary background and how he has become a kitchen superstar so quickly. Let’s see what we can get out of him today. Eating Our Words: Tell the readers something that they would be surprised to learn about…
Five Musicians Who Would Make Kick-Ass Parade Balloons
Rocks Off does not go to actual parades because we’ll be damned if we’ll waste clean pants on something that doesn’t involve booze or Harry Potter, but we always make sure to catch the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade on the teletube. We are, however, getting a little sick of the…
The 2010 British Television Advertising Awards
The British have us beat when it comes to television advertising. While American ads as a whole rely on addictive but mindless jingles and phrases, our friends across the pond are elevating their television spots to short-film cinema. And for two Sundays in a row at the Museum of Fine…
Big Stars of Comedy
The Kings of Comedy have become like the original 1960s Star Trek television show, but for comedy. The 2000 tour of four prominent African-American comedians (and the resulting film) has led to so many spin-offs, knockoffs and parodies it’s hard to remember what the original was actually like. There’s the…
Pictures at an Exhibition
Before the holidays descend upon us with all those jingle bells and raucous choruses, the Houston Symphony is pausing to reflect on simple romantic pleasures with Pictures at an Exhibition. Conductor Susanna Malkki, former head of the Stavanger Symphony Orchestra in Norway and now with Ensemble InterContemporain in Paris, will…
The H-E-B Holiday Parade
There’s only one valid excuse for escaping food prep duty on Thanksgiving: The H-E-B Holiday Parade downtown, where procrastinators and pure partiers alike can mingle with 400,000 people as balloons, drill squads and ‘tween stars float on by. The 61-year-old parade – technically called the “Holiday Parade,” as both Tom…
Citizen Architect: Samuel Mockbee and the Spirit of the Rural Studio
Get ready for the Music Man. No, not the old Broadway musical. This Music Man is the bigger-than-life Jimmie Lee Matthews, who earned his nickname by constantly blasting soul music through a network of refurbished stereos. He’s just one of the residents of Hale County, Alabama, seen in the documentary…
The Normal Heart
“I belong to a culture that includes Proust, Henry James, Tchaikovsky, Cole Porter, Plato, Socrates,” writes Larry Kramer in The Normal Heart. He immediately demands our attention. This blistering semiautobiographical play from the angriest gay man in America (a title bestowed on him by a clever reporter) is both screed…
The Mexican Debated Tom Tancredo, and No Chingazos Were Thrown!
Dear Mexican, I am a mutt. My father’s father was an illegal immigrant from Mexico. My mother’s father was an illegal immigrant from Ireland. My surname is Mexican and is usually mispronounced by gabachos and pendejos alike. I look more Irish than Mexican. And as my father never spoke it…
Capsule Art Reviews: “Anthony Thompson Shumate: Cocky”, D-17, “Eduardo Gil: Extra”
“Anthony Thompson Shumate: Cocky” When you’re an artist, people offer you all kinds of comments on and advice about your work, something they would never think of doing to, say, an accountant. Anthony Thompson Shumate decided to use those remarks as fodder for his show “Cocky” at Barbara Davis Gallery…
2010 Turkeys of the Year
You’d think, in the eighth year of the Houston Press Turkey of the Year awards, that we’d be running out of candidates. Luckily, this is Texas. Not only that — it has been Texas in an election year, with a (black) Democrat in the White House. Turkey madness!! Rush Limbaugh…
Pegging Plonk
See the making of Plonk’s Guanciale Burger in our slideshow. It was a little before 10:30 p.m. on a Monday night at Plonk Beer & Wine Bistro, a small neighborhood joint in Garden Oaks, and one patron was in handcuffs as an HPD cruiser’s lights flashed blue and red against…
Bread Pudding at Jamaica House
The decadent JM Bread Pudding ($6) at Jamaica House (6357 Westheimer, 713-339-1004) isn’t exactly what you’d expect, but it is damn good. The taste, consistency and look of the dessert are reminiscent of French toast, with three slices of soft white bread dipped in an egg mixture, then baked. The…
Old Familiar Friend
Brendan Benson has been around for a while. His first album, the hooky-as-hell One Mississippi, came out nearly 15 years ago. Since then, Benson has been one of the best things going in melodic, classicist rock music, which some might prefer to call “power-pop.” Despite putting out several critically lauded…
Capsule Stage Reviews: The Drowsy Chaperone, The Little Dog Laughed, Three Bags Full
The Drowsy Chaperone I don’t think there’s been another musical comedy in the last decade that’s as inventive, melodious and witty as this multiple Tony Award winner from 2006. Masquerade Theatre’s rousing production knocks it out of the park. The show is a grand spoof of silly ’20s musicals, the…
Rapunzel Takes a Haircut
“Great,” sighs the wicked witch in Tangled, a CG-animated spin on the Rapunzel story, “now I’m the bad guy.” Mother Gothel, the frizzy-haired, sharp-featured enchantress with the inimitable voice of Donna Murphy, is Disney’s first villainess whose chief crime is being an underminer, and the heroine of Disney’s 50th animated…
Stripped
“She doesn’t sing that way because she’s had it easy.” This is how Tess (Cher), the long-suffering owner of the nightclub at the center of Burlesque, defends her new star, Ali (Christina Aguilera), to the club’s jealous, deposed marquee attraction, Nikki (Kristen Bell). The same phrase could substitute as a…
Maple Leaf Pub’s New Creamsicle
Ethan showed up for his construction industry job at 8 a.m., got laid off at 9 a.m. and, 12 hours later, went to go get drunk with me. After some Irish calisthenics (shots of Tullamore Dew) at his efficiency apartment, we went to nearby Maple Leaf Pub (514 Elgin, 713-520-6464)…
J’Ouvert Caribbean Cafe
Johnathan Phillips, the general manager of the new J’Ouvert Caribbean Cafe (3030 Travis, 713-521-1313) in Midtown, says the restaurant’s name refers to a festival in Trinidad. “It was always the dream of Monique Francis, the owner, to own her own restaurant,” he adds. Monique didn’t start out in the restaurant…
Bluefinger on Broadway?
Catastrophic Theatre’s magnificent world-premiere production of Bluefinger: The Fall and Rise of Herman Brood, written and directed by Jason Nodler, and featuring a blistering performance by Matt Kelly in the title role, could easily be the next smash hit on Broadway. Such crass commercialization may not be the goal for…
Four Loko No Mo’
WHATEVER, POLITICAL ANIMALS Four Loko Ban in Texas Danger drink remains in spotlight By Craig Hlavaty It’s funny how certain things become your beat. Some guys get latched onto animal rights, some find their niche working for homeless people, while others find themselves covering a can of liquid death, in…
The Honore System
The Honore System True and false: This is concerning the story by Chasen Marshall [“Fifth Ward Saints,” November 4]. It is true that I spoke with Carlos Honore and his wife. It is false, however, that either of them spoke to me about organizing any kind of sports program. When…
Thankstaking
Come Thanksgiving night, we imagine a lot of people will be thankful for any reason to get out of the house. They could do a lot worse than this typically Houston, all-over-the-map bill assembled by mystical rocker and headliner Tyagaraja. Chasing the turkey will be fab singer-songwriter Chase Hamblin, mad…
Fat Tony
Houston finally has Fat Tony’s LP RABDARGAB in its collective and figurative hands and ears, and the wait was more than worth it. The three-time Houston Press Music Award winner for Best Underground Hip-Hop unleashes his debut LP Friday night, with B L A C K I E on tap…
Venomous Maximus
If you are looking for a one-stop shop this weekend to examine the headspace of all things heavy and dirty in Houston, you should probably be at Fitzgerald’s on Friday night for this mini-fest of sorts. Billed as Venomous Maximus’s 7″ release show, this lineup is so much more than…
Blonde Redhead
You’ve seen their photograph: Two handsome identical twin brothers, Amedeo and Simone Pace from Italy, framing a beautiful young woman from Kyoto, Kazu Makino. That’s Amedeo on guitar or bass and vocals; Simone is the drummer, a very hard-rocking and idiosyncratic one (he plays keyboards, too); Makino plays slanted, wrenchingly…
Alex Cuba
Guitarist, singer and songwriter Alex Cuba (né Alexis Puentes) traded the tropics of his native isle (whose name he appropriated) for the near-tundra of northern British Columbia a decade or so ago. His music is as expansive as the distance in between, a hook-heavy hybrid that combines a nonspecific Cuban/Latin…
Hashtag Wisdom
It seemed like an okay enough idea, until it became impossible. “Slim Thug will be participating in a panel at the University of Houston discussing anti-bullying from 8 a.m. to 10 a.m. on a Saturday morning,” the e-mail said. “Meet up with him afterwards for an interview.” WHEN IT WAS…
Hot Saturday Night
Since Roky Moon & BOLT’s debut at Benjamin Wesley’s EP-release show at Walter’s on Washington in early 2009, the quintet mixture of glam, punk and Broadway-style balladry has earned them a rep as one of Houston’s most energetic live bands. Along the way, BOLT added piano, horns, and both male…
